What’s Your Problem?

It’s no secret that the business world is changing. People have more access to information than ever before, and they are also bombarded with more messages than ever before. Marketing and Social Media guru Gary Vaynerchuk said in a recent podcast that attention is the currency of today! Undoubtedly he is right. Once you have someone’s attention, then and only then do you have the opportunity to begin a business relationship.

The days of cold calling, mass emails, and impersonal lead generation are quickly going by the wayside. If you want to get someone’s attention and be relevant today, you have to be one thing plain and simple – a PROBLEM SOLVER. In business if you can solve the problems of your potential customers, you will never hurt for business a day in your life. If you solve the problems better than your competitors, you quickly become the market leader provided you can deliver on your promises and you provide world class customer service.

As we head into 2016, it’s important to understand that your potential customers will make nearly 60% of their buying decisions without even speaking to you! Thats amazing, and it certainly should change the way you look at your sales process. Buyers understand the problems and challenges of their businesses and will conduct most of their research on you and your company on their own time, in their own way to see if you can help. If you are perceived as someone who can solve the problem that they have, then you’ve got a shot at winning their business.

In this noisy, fast paced world, how do you get noticed? How to you get the message out that you are the problem solver they are looking for? How do you get them to take a look at what you have to offer? It is indeed a challenge, but nothing insurmountable. Here are my top 5 tips on sales success in 2016!

1. Understand the problems your customers face. In most industries the problems are common amongst all of the competitors in the space. If you have some existing customers that are buying from you already, ASK THEM. What problems are you facing? How can I be a resource to help solve them? Armed with this information, you can have a pretty good foundation to craft your message to the rest of the industry you are going after. Remember, most of them are facing the same issues.

2. Become an expert in your field. This starts with actually becoming an expert in your field! Don’t think you are because you work in the space. Learn all that you can – every single day! Then blog, post, tweet, speak about the issues your industry faces and potential solutions to them. If you are putting out good content that is relevant to the needs of your industry, you will quickly rise up as a leader in your field.

3. Solicit customer feedback and SHARE it! If you are in business for any amount of time – even a couple months – get to know what your customers really think of you. What are you doing well? What do you need to improve? Obviously areas for improvement are things that you should focus on to become a better business, and you should take these comments to heart. But when your customers tell you what you are doing well – shout it from the rooftops! Get as many customer testimonials as you can and proudly display them on your site, Facebook page, Twitter feed, etc. Remember – your potential customers are researching you, and the positive comments from actual customers will go a long way!

4. Be a resource. How many of us tend to call on our customers or prospects just to ‘check in’ or ‘see how things are going’? If you do this, you quickly become known as someone who is providing little value. Although checking up on your customers is important, it’s great to always leave them with something that will benefit them. Share a podcast you listened to, send your latest ebook, tell them about a new productivity app you found, etc. Have a reason to call them that’s not just about selling them something. If you become that resource and are seen as a person of value, then the sales will come!

5. Keep your relationships strong. As much as the world is changing there is one thing I believe will always stay the same. At the end of the day, business will always be people doing business with people. That’s a relationship. If you value your relationship and it’s mutually beneficial, why would you look anywhere else? If your relationships are strong, your business won’t always be affected by the shiny new thing that comes along, or the new guy with the lower price. Keep your relationships strong by being the resource we spoke of, visiting your customers when you can, and always, always showing your gratitude! When you do this not only will your customers keep buying from you, they will tell all their friends about you as well and you will watch your business thrive!

There you have it – some new, some old. Stay relevant, keep learning and lets all crush it in 2016!

An aspiring personal trainer, Sean Gagnon started interning at a health club, and the owner of the clubs was so impressed by his work ethic that he offered him a partnership opportunity years later to help run his gyms and become involved with fitness products he was selling. Under The Abs Company, they've sold products via infomercials and in retail that have become household names: The Ab Roller and Ab Coaster, which have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to date.